American Airlines and Citi recently announced the extension of their long-standing partnership in early December 2024. The highlight of this announcement was the decision to go exclusive with credit card partnerships.
Historically, American Airlines offered co-branded AAdvantage credit cards through both Citi and Barclays. This arrangement originated from the merger between American Airlines and US Airways in 2013, where Barclays issued cards for US Airways and Citi for American Airlines. Following the merger, both banks continued to issue cards for the combined airlines.
However, Citi announced in December that it would be acquiring Barclays’ suite of AAdvantage cards, making Citi the exclusive issuer for American Airlines. The transition of existing Barclays cardholders to Citi products is expected to take place in 2026. While Citi and American have hinted at new benefits for flyers, specific details are yet to be revealed.
As a long-time AAdvantage member, I have noticed that American Airlines’ credit cards and perks for frequent flyers have lagged behind competitors, such as Delta, United, and Southwest. I hope that Citi and American use this opportunity to revamp their credit cards and make the program more competitive, starting with allowing the transfer of Citi ThankYou points to American Airlines miles.
What’s staying the same, for now
Currently, multiple AAdvantage cards are still available on the market, including two prominent consumer cards from American Airlines:
Both cards have similar annual fees and offer identical rewards on American Airlines spending, including perks like early boarding, a checked-bag waiver, and discounts on in-flight purchases. However, they differ in sign-up bonuses and additional benefits.
…truncated for brevity… The reason I don’t focus on American sign-up bonuses is mainly because they are limited compared to other options like Chase bonuses. The ongoing rewards for spending on American Airlines cards are also not as lucrative as what I could earn with my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. Additionally, unlike American’s competitors, there is no option to transfer proprietary credit card points to American, which other airlines offer through partnerships with credit card issuers.
While there are some workarounds, such as transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to American at a less favorable rate, it can be inconvenient and cumbersome, especially if you need to make changes to your flight. In the past, Citi and Bilt cardholders could transfer points to American, but those partnerships were not permanent. A long-term deal with Citi to allow cardholders to transfer ThankYou points to American would be a significant benefit for flyers and a boost for the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card.
Citi could consider adopting Barclays’ unique sign-up bonus approach, similar to the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®, which offers a valuable bonus with no minimum spending required beyond the annual fee. This type of bonus is rare and can provide significant value to cardholders. Additionally, Citi could potentially offer a companion pass option for its consumer cards, similar to what Southwest does with its co-branded cards, which could be a valuable perk for heavy spenders.
Offering discounts on reward redemptions, similar to what Delta and United cardholders receive, could be a significant win for American flyers. Bringing back million miler spending for cardholders, allowing them to work towards lifetime status through card spending, could also be a welcome perk for loyalists. While American stopped including cardholder spending towards the million miler program in the past, there is a possibility that they could reintroduce this benefit in the future. following sentence:
The boy ran quickly to catch up with his friends.
He sprinted to catch up with his friends. following sentence in a different way:
“The teacher explained the lesson to the students in a clear and concise manner.”
“The lesson was explained by the teacher to the students in a clear and concise manner.”